Cleanup plan comes to grips with a century of mining
The proposal to clean up and reclaim more than 100 years of mining in the Keno Hill Silver District has been tabled by Alexco Resource and its subsidiary.
By Chuck Tobin on February 22, 2019
The proposal to clean up and reclaim more than 100 years of mining in the Keno Hill Silver District has been tabled by Alexco Resource and its subsidiary.
It’s the first reclamation proposal for any of the large mines the federal government declared abandoned while it was in charge of mining in the territory prior to devolution of federal authority on April 1, 2003.
Other sites include Faro, Mount Nansen, Clinton Creek and Ketza River.
Despite tens of millions of dollars spent on developing a plan for Faro over more than a decade, there is still nothing of substance in terms of a reclamation proposal.
There’s a plan in the oven for Mount Nansen, but still nothing for the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB) to look at.
As is the case for all abandoned mines that were approved and permitted by Ottawa, the cost of caring for the abandoned sites and eventually cleaning them up falls to the federal government.
Federal taxpayers will be providing the $100-million-plus to finance the Keno Hill project.
The reclamation initiative for the silver district is the only case where the responsibility to develop a plan was done through a private-public partnership.
“Everything from the very first mining in 1913, that is Silver King, is part of this plan,” Alexco president Brad Thrall told the Star Thursday. “So you are going back 100 years.”
Thrall said the reclamation proposal is a model example of what can be achieved through a partnership among the private sector, First Nations and government.
Since Ottawa became responsible for the Keno Hill Silver District in 2001, it has spent $52 million on care and maintenance, planning the reclamation project and doing some remediation work such as tearing down buildings in Elsa, the former company townsite.
Many Yukoners today have memories of living in or growing up in Elsa. Former government leader Piers McDonald was an Elsa miner before entering territorial politics in 1982.
Alexco and its subsidiary, the Elsa Reclamation and Development Company, filed their proposal last September. The assessment board tabled the document Wednesday for public review. The comment period closes March 27.
Rob Yeomans, the communications manager with YESAB, said Thursday the document went out for public review after the board’s designated office in Mayo determined it had all the necessary information to conduct a review of the proposal.
There are literally scores of different sites to be reclaimed; some large, some small; some not so old, some very old.
Some were hand-dug. Some are more substantial, like the Valley Tailings site on the other side of the Silver Trail Highway from Elsa.
A map of the sites to be cleaned up resembles a pin cushion. A summary in the proposal provides 20 pages of briefly describing what is to be done at each site.
Altogether, there is in the neighbour of 100 different documents detailing the reclamation project.
The proposal estimates it will cost in the neighbourhood of $111 million, of which $76.7 will be spent in the first five years plugging adits or blocking portals, backfilling shafts, moving tailings and dealing with waste rock storage areas.
The remaining $34.8 is to be spent in year six through year 30, to maintain a small staff to conduct ongoing monitoring to ensure the reclamation is working and remains in compliance.
For some sites where an old portal has collapsed with no chance for public access, there is nothing to be done, provided there’s no threat of contaminated water leaking out or any other threat to the environment.
The number of jobs during the initial five years will vary from nine full-time positions and 59 seasonal jobs in year one to 15 full-time positions and 43 seasonal jobs in year five, according to the proposal.
The proposal estimates 40 pieces of heavy equipment will be required in year one but fall to 23 in year five.
Alexco is continuing to conduct exploration in the silver district, with an aim to recommence production that it halted in 2013 because of falling silver prices.
After taking control of the United Keno assets in 2005, Alexco built a new mill in Keno and brought the historic Bellekeno mine back into production in 2011.
The company earned the right to buy the known silver assets in the district through a bid process in 2005, four years after Ottawa declared the mine abandoned and took over the annual cost of ongoing water treatment and such.
Ottawa initially insisted any company who bought the silver assets would have to accept all the liabilities associated with more than 100 years of mining.
The federal government was finally convinced to separate the two, though the bid process did include a component where the companies had to express their willingness to partner in the reclamation project.